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Daylight cometh

7:45 a.m. and van 2 has landed in Orleans where we’re showering for the first time and maybe even catching a few winks while van 1 takes over and runs from Harwich Community Center to Nauset Regional High School in Eastham.

So far things are going well and both vans are putting in some pretty good times. The weather has held up with only a bit of a drizzle here and there, including as van 2 camped on the athletic fields at Barnstable Intermediate School. Kevin “the typhoon” Keating of the Virginia Keatings picked up a medal already for the half marathon that was his first leg. Despite his claims that he was pretty beat up he logged something around 7:30 miles on his next run and looks to finish strong.

Sarah "fast mother" Cassidy points out a possible route change. Chicago is only 1,028 miles away after all. Photo by Jan Peischel

Jim “Tim” Stutz and Rob “formerly known as the knee” Archibald have put in their standard heavy lifting, passing or helping to put us in the position to catch teams in what I’ll call the “run down” phase of the relay, when those teams that started earlier begin to tire and we hopefully maintain or improve our pace. In particular Archibald deserves a cheer for running about 4 miles before Keating’s run and then another 4.5 miles right afterward. Stutz, meanwhile, put in a serious 8 miler that seemed to go upward forever followed by a 5.6 mile second run.

Heavy Weather van 1 poses for a photo. Photo by James Peischel

The Cassidy brothers are running strong, although, speaking for myself I’m not exactly sure my strategy of running a pace 7:20 and 7:10 on my first runs early on is going to pan out for the last one, which is a 9.8 miler to the finish line. The two first runs were great whatever happens later: The first was across the Bourne Bridge with a stiff head wind to start but a great view even at night. The second was through one of my favorite parts of Harwich through the picturesque Bell’s Neck area.

Van 1 stopped in Harwich for showers, breakfast and some zzzzs. It looks like we lost (at least temporarily) one of the runners in van 1 but we’re hoping she recovers and can get back out on the course. If not, van 1 will obviously power through.

So now we eat and eat and maybe sleep, maybe not. The three or so hours we got last night was an important key to our success as are the massive amounts of food and liquid we’ve consumed. Before the run we had some mac and cheese, cold cuts and whatever else was laying around the house in Norwell. So far on the road we’ve eaten breaded chicken sandwiches, bagels, Cliff bars, Gu, Cliff shot blocks, hard boiled eggs, Gatorade, coconut water, chocolate chip cookies, Pop Tarts, bananas, pistachios and almonds. Now we’re about to sit down to bacon egg and cheese sandwiches. You cannot eat too much on a relay like this although there is some question about whether you can eat the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Rob "formerly known as the knee" Archibald hands off to Kevin "the typhoon" Keating Saturday morning in Brewster. Photo by Patrick Cassidy

We’re expecting to meet up with van 2 again around 11 a.m. Until next time here are a few more shots from the road. This seems like an appropriate time to say thank you to all of the people who have helped us along the way, including my wife, mother and father, race volunteers and the police standing detail and stopping traffic so we can make it safely across the street.

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Susan Eastman

FITchat is written by Cape Cod Times staffer Susan Eastman, who got hooked on running in 2005 and enjoys sharing her fitness experience with others. Follow her at twitter.com/fitchatblogger. Like FITchat at ... Read Full